According to the Senate Armed Services Committee, Blackwater has
created 31 shell companies in order to win military and CIA contracts
without revealing its notorious name.

Chairman Carl Levin released a chart of the subsidiaries to the New York Times last week. According to the Times,
at least three of the companies have been awarded secret contracts. One
official said Blackwater, now called Xe Services, and its subsidiaries
have been paid $600 million in classified government deals since 2001.

Levin, who's conducting an investigation into government contracting,
said he asked the Justice Department to look into whether Blackwater
had misled federal agencies by using its subsidiaries.

As the Times points out, Army officials told a committee
earlier this year that they didn't know a Blackwater subsidiary,
Paravant, was part of Blackwater when the Army awarded the company a
contract to help train the Afghan Army.

But Xe, which everyone knows is nee Blackwater, has also been winning
contracts. In June, the CIA acknowledged Blackwater won a $100 million
contract for security services in Afghanistan. CIA director Leon Panetta defended the decision, saying Blackwater underbid its competitors by several million dollars and had "shaped up their act."